Apple Given a Choice: $10 a Month, or No Streaming
Service…

So, you really think Spotify will get to keep its free tier?

Here’s the latest on the negotiations between Apple and the
major labels over their upcoming, paid-only streaming service,
as reported by
the New York Times.

“According to several music executives, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because the talks are private, Apple
recently tried but failed to persuade record labels to
agree to lower licensing costs that would have let Apple sell
subscriptions to its streaming service for $8 a month
— a discount from the $10 that has become standard for services
like Spotify, Rhapsody and Rdio.

That $2 markdown may be small, but Apple’s failure to secure it
reflects a shift in the company’s relationship with the music
industry. While Apple once enjoyed enormous negotiating
power as the dominant force in digital music — an area it
helped pioneer more than a decade ago with music downloads — it
now faces an array of new competitors and finds itself in the
position of needing to modernize its offerings to catch up to
the streaming revolution.

That has weakened Apple’s leverage — and the labels
could not be happier about it.”

Image: Doug Morris, CEO and Chairman of Sony Music
Entertainment. “Basically, I equate ‘free’ with the
decline of the music business,” Morris
recently commented.

Comments (2)

Name2

Thursday, March 26, 2015

According to several music executives, who spoke on the
condition of anonymity because the talks are private

Sounds like the setup for a vaudeville joke: “How private
are they?”

Name2

Thursday, March 26, 2015

Apple recently tried but failed to persuade record
labels to agree to lower licensing costs that would have
let Apple sell subscriptions to its streaming service for
$8 a month

You know it’s all over when you have to collude to fixother companies’ prices.

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